The No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando, comprising five troops of a collective four-hundred elite-trained soldiers was given the task of securing the left flank of the Canadian assault. They were to land in the "Nan" sector behind the 8th Brigade, capture Langrune-sur-Mer, advance as far east as the divisional boundary, and link up with No. 41 (Royal Marine) Commando coming from Sword Beach.
The assault force encountered stiff resistance even before reaching the shore. Shellfire damaged one Landing Craft, Infantry (Small), causing it to founder on a well-placed German obstacle. While some survivors succeeded in swimming to relative safety, many were swept away by a vicious sea swell or drowned under the weight of their equipment.
Kenneth McAlpine, Royal Marine: “Those that hit the beach had their own problems apart from the tidal rip. Bullets hissed and spat along the surface of the water, but worst of all was the damage caused by a positive deluge of heavy mortar bombs. Most craft still stuck on the beach obstacles simply vanished under this bombardment.”
The No. 48 Commando landed at 8:43 am, opposite and immediately east of the St. Aubin strongpoint. The North Shore Regiment had not yet cleared the defenders in full by the time the Royal Marines arrived. Thus the commandos were subjected to intense German fire from a strong-point and suffered heavy casualties on the shoreline.
LCI brings Royal Marines ashore near St Aubin-sur-Mer (National Army Museum).
Against stiff opposition No. 48 managed to push on toward Langrune-sur-Mer. Then the commandos started an attack on a heavily defended enemy strongpoint called Wiederstandsnest 26 (WN 26). WN 26 was a block of sea-facing houses, reinforced with concrete, wire, machine guns and mortars. A Centaur tank with a 95mm gun arrived and fired all its ammunition at the ten foot high, four feet thick concrete but did very little damage. The Commandos found they were too weak to take WN26 as they had taken many casualties on the landing. The Commandos were ordered to move back and defend the area against an expected German counter attack.
The next morning 48 Commando resumed the attack on WN26 with the support of an M10 Wolverine tank destroyer. WN 26 was finally taken on June 7. Capturing WN 26, together with the initial beach assault and the ultimate liberation of Langrune-sur-Mer, had brought extraordinarily heavy casualties over just two days of intense fighting for the Royal Marines No. 48.
The No. 41 Commando which landed at Lion-sur-Mer on the 3rd British Infantry Division front, also met difficult enemy resistance. No. 41 Commando was unable to immediately capture Lion-sur-Mer nor capture Petit Enfer to the west. This prevented the units from joining the divisional fronts. It wasn't until June 8th that these towns were captured.
Royal Marines disembark from their landing craft in the Nan Red Sector of Juno Beach. One is carrying a small motorcycle. (National Army Museum).
